Thailand's weightlifting gold medal hopes suffered a major blow when it was announced on Monday that Olympic champion Pawina Thongsuk suffered a bad knee injury during training in Chiang Mai over the weekend.

"It is really bad news," the president of the Thailand Amateur Weightlifting Association Ms Boossaba Yodbangtoey was quoted by the Bangkok Post on Monday as saying.

"Pawina hurt her left knee in training and it doesn't look good, " she said.

She said there had been a lot of pressure on Pawina to perform well at the Asian Games and she had been training very hard which led to the injury.

"I regret to say she only has a slim chance of winning a medal, " she said. "I would like to say sorry in advance to the Thai people but don't expect a gold from Pawina."